(The author of this entry is Real Florido, a friend and fellow elder of Magwayen)

They barely have budget for their projects yet they can produce work of arts that are worth keeping for a lifetime. It’s been nine years yet these poor kids’ theater group is still down the line trying to climb its way up.

Recently, Magwayen, as they are very well known in the University of the City of Manila (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila), produced another two big projects that showcased young talents from different colleges of this academic institution. MPOP, a concert that featured Magwayen’s (Magwayen Creative Scholars’ Guild) performing arts prowess, and HAWLA, an experimental one-act play that depicted different lives affected and infected with and by AIDS. These two projects were commissioned by the PLM Supreme Student Council.

The MPOP concert was staged at the PLM Tanghalang Bayan, the biggest stage in the vicinity, as part of the University’s 42nd foundation day program for the students. The audience was in awe with the production numbers. They were singing with the songs and everybody were getting giddy with the dance numbers. It was a blast! It’s all about Pop which the group had tried to redifine through dances and songs. MPOP is all about PLM isko’s (iskolar ng bayan) music and how it shaped the pop culture in the University. These young thespians gave it to them through the direction of Carlo Yanesa.

After 4 days, the one-act play HAWLA was staged at the Med Forum Hall of Gusaling Bagatsing. There were six stagings for the two-day show, all of which were jampacked. Hawla is the very first stage production ever produced by Magwayen. It was Marlon Miguel’s (the founder of the group) first ever written script for the guild. Shengka Mangahas, an alumna, was the first director who gave life to this piece of art. This time, the restaging was directed by Borgy Danao (Walang Umaga sa Casa Ligaya, 2001 and Indrapura, 2006). After almost a decade, Hawla was revisited.

These two projects taught the group so much. It had been nine years and the guild is still experiencing hardships which, more often than not, are caused by the people who are supposed to be on the side of these young creative minds in practicing creativity inside the University.

These artists, who are willing to spend time and stay late at night just to prepare for a performance, are always put in akward and difficult situations. Sometimes, they are even humiliated by school officials. They are not even given a proper place where they can rehearse a song or practice a dance move or a scene in an upcoming stageplay. These students are just content with the Morgue room porch (because nobody stays there), old claustrophobic dungeon or the auditorium’s back door as their rehearsal venues. It had been nine years yet they are still nothing but the school’s most notorious students for staying up late at night inside the University.

I was once a member of this organization. I remember two incidents during my stay there as an undergrad student. The first one was when an administrative officer asked me why do we have to organize and produce plays and concert performances. She even told me how much the school was paying for the consumption of electricity everytime we use a venue. The second one was when I was summoned to the Office of the Students’ Affair because of the explicit content of our stageplay.

I gracefully surpassed all the pressures they thrown upon me primarily because I knew they don’t really know what they were saying. They were also naive about our rights as students. Were they naive or they just neglected our rights? Both of this school officials are still in the University as of the moment. I can say they both impede the growth of the theatre and performing arts group. They don’t even realize that the money they are earning comes from the taxes that these artistic students’ parents pay every month. I also believe they are getting some from the 20 percent tax I pay.

It has been nine long hard years and Magwayen are still hanging on, trying to seize each odd. All they have is a long black cloth, some halogen lights, a handful of wit and talent and courage to continue a legacy that shaped PLM’s artistic sensibility...and that will be forever etched in many people’s lives—inlcuding mine.